Photos submitted!

I can hardly believe that next week I will be completing my third of the four Post Placement Reports required by Russia. The other day I submitted the pictures to my adoption agency and now I am just mapping out when I will be able to get a final deep cleaning done prior to my visit.

I know that having a spotless house is not what Christine my Social worker is looking for but I feel out of respect that it should be clean and neat prior to her coming. I am sure that I am not alone. Last year I felt a little ambivalent about my visit. This year everything feels different. Amazing how different a person can feel in just one year.

I had a hard time picking pictures as usual for the report. How does one pick 10 pictures to describe entire year? I love them all but I know this is part of Anna's permanent record in Russia so I want to make sure that they really focus on Anna. Russian are funny they are less amused by pictures of people smiling then we are in the United States.

She sure has grown. I pulled out my photobooks yesterday for my sister Jenny to look through. Prior to this summer she had only met Anna about 3 times because of her line of work. I loved going through the pictures and explaining them. I did feel a little sad for those family members who have not made it a priority to be in Anna's life. Who knows what this year will bring. Last year was so different perhaps this coming year will bring my family closer together.